Paired with solar projects, battery systems like those made by Powin can help tackle both issues, the company says. That can benefit solar adopters, who can use their stored solar energy during peak demand periods when utility rates might be higher.

Navigant Research recently forecast that the global annual market for distributed solar plus energy storage — DSES, as it's known — will be worth $49.1 billion by 2026.

“The state has already installed a large amount of solar both residentially and commercially, but all of these distributed resources have created an urgent need for energy storage to maintain system frequency and voltage as well as energy shifting from daytime to peak periods in the evening when it is needed most,” Powin President Geoff Brown said in a news release.

Since then, it’s announced utility energy storage deals in San Diego and Ontario, Canada.

While the Hawaii projects are very different, coming on the customer side of the meter and paired with solar power systems, they will use the “Stack140” modular battery array that the company has developed as the basis for virtually all its installations.